All seven of us were waiting for our bus to come. Unfortunately we
had just missed it so I decided to rest my back on a nearby post.
Others followed me and as we chatted Elizabeth noticed that I was
leaning against a very scary looking man with one weird eye ball. The
man was Marilyn Manson and I was leaning on his concert poster. He
became the topic of our conversation and when we realized that the
concert was the next day I exclaimed, “Hey, lets go there!”
We pondered in prayer for a good while before we came to a unanimous
decision. It was a go. As we each shared our hearts about what we felt
God prompting us to do it was clear that we were to plant seeds of
reconciliation. When Manson was young he was shunned by the church due
to his awkwardness, likewise his followers often have fallen victim to
the same treatment. His platform is publicly founded on satanism and
easily draws outcasts. In one of his latest interviews he told his fans
that if they feel like committing suicide, to just do it.
We prepared ourselves spiritually the best way we knew how. I
decided to dress myself in black leggings with a black skirt and shirt
to match; then I covered my eyes in the color of death. My goal was not
to mock, but to accept.
On the bus on the way there Emily, Elizabeth, Ian and I were looked
up and down. These “children of the light” had a taste of the judgment
that some of these people get every time they go out in public. It
didn’t feel good. We got to the concert, decided to split two by two
and dive right in. Liz and Em made there way to a girl standing by
herself and Ian and I went for a walk to build up more courage and try
to find the person we were supposed to talk to. We finally found a
crowded area where we sat and people watched as we prayed about who to
approach. We had a tough time because every time we picked somebody out
and made the approach they would slowly turn on their heels and start
walking away. The freaky thing about this is that it happened SEVERAL
times and they all turned in a very distinct way. We didn’t really know
what to do so we decided to go for another walk. As we did we passed
the girls ministering to a girl with big sunglasses on. Her name was
Lucy, a beautiful girl with painted pink stripes in her hair and a
large gap between her teeth. Our team concurs that she is the reason
why God sent us there.
Em and Liz were upfront when Lucy asked why they were at the
concert. Liz confidently said, “Well, we feel like God told us to come,
and then He told us to come over here and tell you that He loves you.”
Lucy giggled in surprise. Had anyone every told her this before, it
seemed not. Interested in what they were saying, their conversation
continued. Once finding out that they were Christian missionaries she
apologetically informed them that they were at the wrong concert.
“Marilyn Manson is against everything that you believe.” The girls told
her that it was okay and that it didn’t matter. Lucy upside down cross
that she wore on her neck sparked a conversation about her beliefs and
she told them that she was an Athiest. The girls asked her about her
church experience and she told them that she had only gone to a church
a few times when she was younger, but it was too rigid and there were
too many rules.
As they talked Liz felt prompted to tell Lucy that God thought she
was beautiful, and when she did Lucy burst out into more childlike
giggles. It was as if the word beautiful was foreign to her. She boldly
asked why they thought this and Liz sincerely gave her the truth. She
spoke of natural things and shared Psalm 139 with her. And for the
first time in Lucy’s life, someone bothered to paint a whole new
picture of God for her. She was introduced to a God who accepts,
befriends, delights in, who is in the habit of giving too much mercy,
and too much grace. A God who can look at a girl who has rejected him
because she was rejected and send four Americans across the world to go
find her.
Liz asked Lucy to take her sunglasses off of her face. As she did so
her amber-colored eyes radiated through the black painted circles
surrounding them. The girl’s reaction was only priceless because it was
real. They flamboyantly doted over how stunningly gorgeous they were.
In fact, days later when the girls talked about her unveiling her eyes
their sincere reaction still gave me goosebumps. I don’t think that
Lucy was ever given such a response in her life. Shortly after this the
girls said their goodbyes and Lucy went into the concert hall.
When we all gathered back together I felt God’s delight resting on me like two love birds on their 50th
wedding anniversary. As the girls shared their story I remembered the
first time that I was told that God loved me, and the several years
after when that precious seed took root and I finally understood how
magnificent that statement was.
Before going to the concert I sent out a prayer request to over 100
people. I had no idea what was going to happen, but I knew we needed
support. As I look at the whole picture of what happened I am in awe of
the height and depth of His love. Do me a favor and try to wrap your
mind around this:
For one girl, who had blatantly denied him, blasphemed him, and worshiped his enemy…
He made me lean against a scary poster.
Then he took his fingers and smushed us together–all so that she
could hear these words, “I love you.” And because he is patient,
because his love endures, he will watch over the seed that he planted
and will see to it that it comes into fruition. All this trouble for
one girl who hates him.
